It’s been said that the key to maintaining a healthy weight begins in the kitchen and that it’s 80% diet, 20% exercise and lifestyle. That simple belief has not slowed or lessened humanity’s ongoing desire and search for the latest and greatest miracle cure that promises to help us shed the pounds faster and easier. People are willing to try anything to lose weight, from fasting and taking risky pills to restricting their diet and getting plastic surgery.

While losing weight can be extremely difficult, there are some basic things that you can to to naturally activate your weight loss hormones. Those are the hormones which regulate and have the biggest impact on our body weight. That way you can achieve a healthier overall balance, and weight, without having to resort to the more drastic measures mentioned above. Below are five ways in which you can turn on weight loss hormones, so give them a try and see if they can make a difference in your life:

1. Eat a Proper Breakfast. Never skip the most important meal of the day because it helps to switch your body from a state of fasting to an awake, calorie burning machine. That’s because when you’re asleep and in a state of rest your metabolism, breathing, and heart rate are all slowed down. In order to start your day off right and turn on the weight loss hormones, you need to eat a balanced breakfast. That means a meal consisting of healthy fats, protein, and carbohydrates that’s around 800 calories or less.

2. Focus on Your Breathing. By practicing certain measured breathing techniques you can speed up your metabolism and burn through more calories than you would with regular, normal breathing patterns. According to a recent study, the following breathing technique led to participants having an increased resting metabolic oxygen consumption rate of up to thirty-seven percent. What they were asked to do was breathe through only one nostril at a time, closing off the other one completely, for twenty-seven breathing cycles. This was done four times per day for one month and it was found to make that much of a difference by speeding up metabolism and activating weight loss hormones.

3. Eat More Satisfying Types of Foods. When you eat junk foods that are filled with sugar and salt you won’t feel full for long and so you end up eating even more just to feel sated. By choosing to eat more filling foods that leave you feeling satisfied for longer after eating, you can avoid piling on the pounds. The hormone which is primarily responsible for making us feel full is leptin and it can be found in high amounts in the following list of foods; oatmeal, hot peppers such as jalapenos, grapefruit, turkey, chicken and other lean types of meats like beef and pork, fish such as tuna, salmon, and sardines, yogurt (the low-fat variety), broccoli, green tea, almonds, eggs, beans, skim milk, olive oil, turmeric, and apples. Working these leptin-rich foods into your diet will naturally leave you feeling fuller for longer and will help prevent you from over-eating.

4. Aim to Get a Quality Nights Rest. By getting the recommended 6-8 hours of sleep every night, you will feel better all around. Failing to get enough sleep leads to leptin levels dropping, the hormone that makes you feel full, and so you’ll be more likely to eat more and yet still not feel satisfied. That leads to overeating as your body is looking for ways to make up for the energy it’s lacking from the lack of sleep. Studies have found that people who don’t get enough sleep are at an increased risk for a number of health issues, including gaining weight.

5. Aim to Increase and Build up Your Muscles. Working out and lifting weights is the key to increasing muscle mass. When you lift heavy weights enough times to feel a burn that means your body is producing testosterone, a sex hormone that we all have in our systems and which helps build muscle by burning fat. You don’t even need a gym or set of weights to activate this weight loss hormone. Instead, by simply carrying heavy things like groceries, packages, or even your kids whenever you get a chance to throughout the day, you can increase testosterone levels. However, doing a number of repetitions and lifting weights to the point where you can feel it, and are sore the next day, is a key factor to shedding pounds.